An introduction to Graph Data Management

A graph database is a database where the data structures for the schema and/or instances are modeled as a (labeled)(directed) graph or generalizations of it, and where querying is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type constructors. In this article we present the basic notions of graph databases, give an historical overview of its main development, and study the main current systems that implement them

Ein Rahmenwerk für kooperativen Informationsaustausch

In der Region Aachen wollen eine Reihe von Softwareherstellem durch Austausch von Softwarekomponenten und durch Austausch von Erfahrungen beim Einsatz von kommerziellen Softwarekomponenten kooperieren. In Zusammenarbeit mit diesen Partnern aus dem Regionalen Industrieclub Informatik Aachen wurde daher ein Intemet-basiertes Informationssystem für kooperative Softwarewiederverwendung entwickelt, das wir in diesem Beitrag vorstellen. Wir gehen auf die Aspekte der Kooperation, den Klassifikationsansatz und das zugrundeliegende SYNERGIERahmenwerk ein und erläutern, warum mit diesem Rahmenwerk auch andere Informationssysteme zur Unterstützung untemehmensübergreifender Kooperation entwickelt werden können

Development of an object oriented program information database with support for software reuse, 1996

This research addresses the need for organizations to have a project support environment that can produce large, complex, quality systems at a reasonable cost. Many researchers recommend a program database as the basis for this project support environment. The development of an object-oriented database to store and retrieve program information is described along with the design for a software reuse library. The program objects are based on the common taxonomy of all software, e g. composed of modules, programs, functions, and procedures, rather than the domain knowledge that software represents. This design permits maximum flexibility in accommodating most applications. The reuse library is composed of reusable components in the program database. The multi-attributes of keywords and component signatures are used to classify and retrieve reusable software objects. This research demonstrates a means for an organization to provide immediate improvement to its project support environment and to implement a software reuse program. These benefits translate to improved software quality and productivity which are needed to remedy the current software crisis

Comparative analysis of PropertyFirst vs. EntityFirst modeling approaches in graph databases

While relational databases still hold the primary position in the database technology domain, and have been for the longest time of any Computer Science technology has since its inception, for the first time the relational databases now have valid and worthy opponent in the NoSQL database movement. NoSQL databases, even though not many people have heard of them, with a significant number of Computer Science people included, have spread rapidly in many shapes and forms and have done so in quite a chaotic fashion. Similarly to the way they appeared and spread, design and modeling for them have been undertaken in an unstructured manner. Currently they are subcategorized in 4 main groups as: Key-value stores, Column Family stores, Document stores and Graph databases. In this thesis, different modeling approaches for graph databases, applied to the same domain are analyzed and compared, especially from a design perspective. The database selected here as the implemented technology is Neo4J by Neo Technologies and is a directed property graph database, which means that relationships between its data entities must have a starting and ending (or source and destination) node. This research provides an overview of two competing modeling approaches and evaluates them in a context of a real world example. The work done here shows that both of these modeling approaches are valid and that it is possible to fully develop a data model based on the same domain data with both approaches and that both can be used later to support application access in a similar fashion. One of the models provides for faster access to data, but at a cost of higher maintenance and increased complexity

Linguaggi di interrogazione per basi di dati semistrutturati a grafo.

Negli ultimi anni, grazie anche all'avvento del web 2.0, si sono rese disponibili grandi sorgenti di dati semistrutturati. Si è quindi sviluppato un certo interesse da parte della comunità di ricerca su alcuni modelli per basi di dati atti ad una migliore rappresentazione e più effciente interrogazione di questo tipo di informazioni: un noto esempio proposto dal W3C è "Resource Description Framework". In questa tesi si analizzano alcuni modelli a grafo sia per dati semistrutturati che non, e si confrontano i relativi linguaggi di interrogazione dal punto di vista del loro potere espressivo

Gras, A Graph-Oriented (software) Engineering Database System

Modern software systems for application areas like software engineering, CAD, or office automation are usually highly interactive and deal with rather complex object structures. For the realization of these systems a nonstandard database system is needed which is able to efficiently handle different types of coarse- and fine-grained objects (like documents and paragraphs), hierarchical and non-hierarchical relations between objects (like composition-links and cross-references), and finally attributes of rather different size (like chapter numbers and bitmaps). Furthermore, this database system should support incremental computation of derived data, undo/redo of data modifications, error recovery from system crashes, and version control mechanisms. In this paper, we describe the underlying data model and the functionality of GRAS, a database system which has been designed according to the requirements mentioned above. Furthermore, we motivate our central design decisions concerning its ..

Formalizing graphical notations

The thesis describes research into graphical notations for software engineering, with a principal interest in ways of formalizing them. The research seeks to provide a theoretical basis that will help in designing both notations and the software tools that process them. The work starts from a survey of literature on notation, followed by a review of techniques for formal description and for computational handling of notations. The survey concentrates on collecting views of the benefits and the problems attending notation use in software development; the review covers picture description languages, grammars and tools such as generic editors and visual programming environments. The main problem of notation is found to be a lack of any coherent, rigorous description methods. The current approaches to this problem are analysed as lacking in consensus on syntax specification and also lacking a clear focus on a defined concept of notated expression. To address these deficiencies, the thesis embarks upon an exploration of serniotic, linguistic and logical theory; this culminates in a proposed formalization of serniosis in notations, using categorial model theory as a mathematical foundation. An argument about the structure of sign systems leads to an analysis of notation into a layered system of tractable theories, spanning the gap between expressive pictorial medium and subject domain. This notion of 'tectonic' theory aims to treat both diagrams and formulae together. The research gives details of how syntactic structure can be sketched in a mathematical sense, with examples applying to software development diagrams, offering a new solution to the problem of notation specification. Based on these methods, the thesis discusses directions for resolving the harder problems of supporting notation design, processing and computer-aided generic editing. A number of future research areas are thereby opened up. For practical trial of the ideas, the work proceeds to the development and partial implementation of a system to aid the design of notations and editors. Finally the thesis is evaluated as a contribution to theory in an area which has not attracted a standard approach